Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease

(as defined by the American Alzheimer’s Foundation)

“Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills, and behavioral changes.

These neurons, which produce the brain chemical, or neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, break connections with other nerve cells and ultimately die. For example, short-term memory fails when Alzheimer’s disease first destroys nerve cells in the hippocampus, and language skills and judgment decline when neurons die in the cerebral cortex.

Two types of abnormal lesions clog the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease: Beta-amyloid plaques—sticky clumps of protein fragments and cellular material that form outside and around neurons; and neurofibrillary tangles—insoluble twisted fibers composed largely of the protein tau that build up inside nerve cells. Although these structures are hallmarks of the disease, scientists are unclear whether they cause it or a byproduct of it.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, or loss of intellectual function, among people aged 65 and older.

Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging.

Origin of the term Alzheimer’s disease dates back to 1906 when Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German physician, presented a case history before a medical meeting of a 51-year-old woman who suffered from a rare brain disorder. A brain autopsy identified the plaques and tangles that today characterize Alzheimer’s disease.”

Alzheimer’s disease, a severe form of dementia, affects an estimated 5.2 million Americans, according to 2013 statistics. One in nine seniors over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s, and the disease is now thought to be the third leading cause of death in the US, right behind heart disease and cancer. A growing body of research suggests there’s a powerful connection between your diet and your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, via similar pathways that cause type 2 diabetes. Dr. Joseph Mercola

Cannabis Studies:

In a study conducted at the Department of Neural Plasticity at the Cajal Institute in Spain, researchers, under the direction of Maria L. de Ceballos, PhD. Concluded,

“Our results indicate that cannabinoids receptors are important in the pathology of AD (Alzheimer’s disease) and that cannabinoids succeed in preventing the neurodegenerative process occurring in the disease.”

The research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience in February 2005